Thursday, 29 August 2019

Media Quotes of the Week: From reverse ferret as The Times says sorry to the English cricket team to C4's news head Byrne reaps Boris bias backlash

The Times [£] after England's test triumph against Australia: "England cricket: an apology. We may have given the impression in Saturday’s Times that Joe Root’s England side had “No fight, no idea, no hope” after they were bowled out for a dismal 67 in their first innings.We now recognise that they are among the finest, battling sides this country has ever produced. We are happy to make this clear."

Donald Trump @realDonaldTrumpon Twitter: "The question I was asked most today by fellow World Leaders, who think the USA is doing so well and is stronger than ever before, happens to be, 'Mr. President, why does the American media hate your Country so much? Why are they rooting for it to fail?' ”

Dan Rather @DanRather on Twitter: "Why even bother reporting on what the president says? Headlines this morning go fom Trump having second thoughts on tariffs to wishing he raised them higher. And all of this before most Americans had had their first cup of coffee."

David Yelland @davidyellandon Twitter: "The media’s support for Johnson’s coup is its lowest collective moment since the 1930s. Those editors that created Brexit and continue to lie to their readers about the realities should hang their heads in shame. History will judge them. It is a disgrace."

David Yelland @davidyellandon Twitter: "Historians will ask why the Brexit Junta, ie the serving editors and senior political staffs, told the country 'EU will fold at last minute....' & 'trade deal with EU will be fastest ever... easy..' They have serially misled UK as has their editor in chief, Boris Johnson."

BBC reporter Gareth Barlow @GarethBarlow on Twitter: "Email from PR firm: 'Hi Gareth, have you seen the reports today that farming is the UK's most deadly industry.' My reply: 'Yes, I am aware. It was my report'."

No 10 source on the Dorothy Byrne MacTaggart Lecture accusing Boris Johnson of being a coward for not doing tv interviews, quoted by Guido Fawkes: "It’s disappointing to see the head of a supposedly impartial news organisation decide to use deliberately inflammatory language to make a strong political statement. We will now consider our response.”

Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear@bendepearon Twitter on cancelled interview with Boris Johnson: “This after telling us to come to Biarritz to interview @BorisJohnson. We were told to come for an interview, then told by advisers that C4 criticism of lack of access had resulted in...no access. @BorisJohnson disagree & says it’s due to lack of time. We are looking for clarity."

Douglas Murray on UnHerd: "Boris Johnson may or may not be correct in choosing to avoid being interviewed by Cathy Newman or Jon Snow on a regular basis. But he is certainly right if he presumes that such an interview would not be conducted in good faith. It would be conducted by an interviewer who is known to have particular political biases. And he might now add to that the fact that it would be conducted on a channel whose news head has compared him to Vladimir Putin. Not exactly the way to mend trust between the politicians and the media, is it?"

Robbie Gibb in the Daily Mail: "Channel 4, like all broadcasters, operates under the rules of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. Chief among those rules is that news, in whatever form, must be reported with ‘due accuracy and presented with due impartiality’. So it remains one of the great mysteries of our age how Channel 4 is not now drowning under a sea of complaints to watchdog Ofcom, so flagrant, in my opinion, is its political bias...At its best, broadcast journalism is independent and fearless. It is forensic but fair. And it is vital to our democracy that it stays that way. My advice to Ms Byrne is to focus on that rather than add her own contribution to the already toxic level of public debate in this country." [£] =paywall

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery